Milford Hospital saved as Cranleigh beds are shut

CAMPAIGNERS who have battled to secure the future of Milford Hospital are celebrating a “victory for common sense”, but dismay has been expressed over the permanent closure of 14 community beds at Cranleigh Village Hospital.

CAMPAIGNERS who have battled for nearly 20 years to secure the future of Milford Hospital are now celebrating a “victory for common sense”.

Supporters have fought since the 1990s to save the beleaguered consultant-led 42-bed specialist rehabilitation service and its day hospital on site.

It is widely acknowledged to be a centre of excellence but has repeatedly been threatened with cost-cutting closure and fragmentation proposals.

In a dramatic U-turn by health chiefs, however, NHS Surrey announced at its board meeting on Tuesday that Milford Hospital will play a major role in the new rehabilitation care pathways it has just approved for the Guildford and Waverley area.

The Milford-based centre of excellence will be the dedicated specialist rehabilitation unit for the Royal Surrey County Hospital and will get a £1m refurbishment.

"Triumph"

“Now the board has approved the Right Team, Right Time proposals, we can focus on delivering these improvements for patients,” said an NHS Surrey spokesman.

“For Milford that means we can start developing detailed plans outlining the refurbishment work we will be undertaking.

“The work could include modernising and replacing equipment and general redecoration but we will also be looking at health and safety and environmental issues.

“We will be inviting patient representatives to help shape our plans, which will also need to look at the logistics of how we make these improvements whilst continuing to deliver services.

“Once plans are finalised, we will start refurbishment work as soon as we can, which is likely to be in the summer.”

Welcoming the news, South West Surrey MP Jeremy Hunt said: “This really is a fantastic start to 2010 for staff, patients and all those involved in the campaign to save Milford.

“I am delighted that NHS Surrey has seen fit to approve the recommendations made last summer. I have been involved in the campaign to save the hospital since before I was elected and many others have been fighting tirelessly for even longer.

“We’re very pleased that Milford’s future is now secure, and the new investment and refurbishment is great news.

“The result is a triumph for campaigning from all parts of the community and a lot of people deserve the credit and our thanks.”

Cranleigh

The joy in Milford was not shared by some in Cranleigh though, as the primary care trust’s (PCT) new healthcare plans for Guildford and Waverley have signalled the permanent closure of 14 community beds at the village hospital.

The changes agreed on Tuesday make no provision for community beds in Cranleigh, which NHS Surrey claims are no longer needed.

The decision legitimises the illegal closure of the beds four years ago by the organisation’s predecessor.

Where beds are needed, NHS Surrey proposes to commission between six and eight of them in local nursing homes.

The PCT is now due to decide next month on where a new hospital and health centre will be built in Cranleigh, with redevelopment of the existing site or the construction of a new building in Knowle Lane being the options on the table.

Guildford MP Anne Milton and her predecessor, Sue Doughty, both slammed NHS Surrey over its decision to close the community beds.

Mrs Milton said health authorities had “consistently made the wrong decision for Cranleigh”.

“It’s a bad day for Cranleigh,” she added.

“It has only reaffirmed people’s cynicism about the consultation process – the questions were outrageously biased.”

Ms Doughty highlighted concerns over the need to care for people in their own homes as a result of the beds closure.

“The level of complacency which the PCT has demonstrated is breathtaking,” she said.

“There is no evidence of what costs will be incurred by Surrey County Council and, indeed, whether it has enough skilled staff.”

"Scattered"

But a spokesman for Cranleigh’s doctors said: “Speaking as clinicians, we simply want what’s best for the health and quality of life of our patients.

“Patients recovering from a stroke or a fall need specialist care if they’re going to recover quickly and return to a good quality of life – Tuesday’s decision will ensure they get the expert care they need to do this.

“We know some people have been worried about the loss of the hospital beds, but this has been looked at very closely.

“The decision means there will be a modern, evidence-based model of care for patients and beds will be in the right place for them to get the specialised, individual care they need.”

Surrey County Council’s health scrutiny committee has accepted the new model of care, but added it had “not been persuaded that the provision of scattered nursing home beds in the Cranleigh area would adequately replace in-patient beds for those not requiring specialist rehabilitation beds”.

The committee stated a strong preference to see these beds on one site, such as Knowle Lane.

Opponents of the new model of care have claimed a hospital without beds will be no more than a clinic.

The PCT has promised a wide range of new diagnostic and outpatient services for the new Cranleigh Hospital, although there will be far more dependence on people being treated in their own homes.

In a statement issued after the meeting on Tuesday, Cliff Bush, chairman of patients group LINks, said: “Although LINks initially objected to the closure of the 14 beds at Cranleigh Village Hospital we now support their closure, provided all the other recommendations are implemented in full.

“We believe these changes, implemented together, will have an improved outcome for patients.”